“Feed My Sheep”

Although Latter-day Saints serving in the United States military began holding meetings in Korea in the 1940s, limited efforts were made to preach to the Korean people during that time. In 1949 Kim Ho Jik was sent by the Korean government to study agricultural methods at Cornell University in the United States. Ho Jik’s officemate at Cornell, Oliver Wayman, was a Latter-day Saint. Wayman shared the Book of Mormon with Ho Jik, who read and believed it was true but felt no need to change churches.

Before leaving Cornell, Wayman told Ho Jik that he thought the Lord had brought Ho Jik there so that Ho Jik could learn how to feed his people spiritually as well as physically. After this conversation, Ho Jik met with local missionaries, determined to understand the doctrine of the Church. On July 29, 1951, Kim Ho Jik was baptized, and as he rose from the water, he heard a voice distinctly say, “Feed my sheep.”

That fall, Ho Jik returned to his war-ravaged homeland and was appointed to several prominent government positions. Ho Jik’s first priority, however, was being a Latter-day Saint. He began working with servicemen to teach the gospel in Korea, and some of his family members were among the first Koreans baptized. A small, Korean-speaking Sunday School was soon organized, with Ho Jik as its instructor. “His whole purpose became to teach these young future leaders of the kingdom of God in Korea,” Rhee Ho Nam, one early convert, observed.

Early members of the Seoul Branch, 1956.

As the Church grew, Korean converts and American servicemen worked together to serve the people and share the gospel. One day, a Latter-day Saint airman serving near Busan visited the small souvenir shop operated by Kim Do Pil and her three children. Seeing that the family had not eaten in some time, he soon returned with hamburgers for the whole family. He invited them to church with him, and, shortly after, Do Pil’s daughter, Lee Chin Yong, was baptized. After her baptism, Chin Yong gave her mother a Japanese copy of the Book of Mormon, which Do Pil carefully read. On a 12-foot-long scroll, Do Pil traced the genealogy and line of authority of prophets, created a chronology of migrations, and outlined the key doctrines of the Book of Mormon. “One particular day as I was studying and asking God for a knowledge of the truth, I felt His divine Spirit, and it convinced me that I should join the Church,” Do Pil said. “I have learned that that book is the most powerful missionary ever used in the Church.” After her baptism, Do Pil began attending Ho Jik’s Sunday School. The members of the Sunday School immediately recognized Kim Do Pil as an expert on the Book of Mormon, and she eventually gave in-depth lessons on the book as one of the first Relief Society presidents in Korea.

In August 1955 Elder Joseph Fielding Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated Korea for the preaching of the gospel, called Kim Ho Jik as district president, and directed all the members to begin preparing for missionaries to be sent. Ho Jik used his connections in the government to gain official recognition for the Church and obtain visas for the missionaries. Han In Sang, another early convert, observed, “Without Dr. Kim, [establishing the Church in Korea] would have been delayed for a couple of decades.”